


whenever i needed you

by paperjamBipper



Category: We Bare Bears (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 09:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19206571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: Panda never stopped to consider the possibility that Charlie would be immune to illness from radiation exposure from being around for so long. Even more obviously, he supposes he should’ve considered the fact that he wasn’t.A trope subversion story where Panda finds himself sick after the events of Bubble, rather than Charlie.





	whenever i needed you

When Panda wakes up, he feels like he’s drowning.

Okay, maybe he’s exaggerating _just_ a little bit. But when he wakes up, Panda finds himself shivering in a cold sweat and his is nose so blocked up that he can barely breathe.

That’s…odd.

Maybe he just had a weird nightmare that triggered his asthma. He turns over, to reach for his inhaler, but for some reason his arm aches too much to grab for it.

“Ugh,” Panda says to nobody, and barely recognizes the nasally tone of his own voice. He hates being sick. He can’t even imagine _why_ he’s even sick. He’s been especially careful about taking care of himself ever since he saw that stupid movie. He’s been taking extra-long showers, much to the complaints of both of his brothers, and he’s become more cautious about taking free food samples at grocery stores due to the fact that _every last person who’s walked through here was probably touching them_ , _and_ he’s become much more aware of washing up after he comes home from the mall.

As a matter of fact, Panda can’t even think of _where_ he could’ve gotten sick. Neither he nor his brothers have been leaving the cave much in the last few days, and the only person he’s been around for an extensive period of time recently other than his brothers is Charlie.

_Wait a minute._

Panda whips up in bed, and his entire aching body screams in protest. He has to squeeze his eyes shut to stop the room from spinning.

 _The toxic lake._ It makes perfect sense that he feels so sick so suddenly. It makes sense that it doesn’t matter that he’s only been around his brothers, or that he hasn’t left the house recently, or any of the work he’s done to avoid getting sick didn’t work. His body didn’t know how to react to _anything_ in that lake, and he was swimming through it for at least a minute solid, and that’s not even including how hard he struggled to keep the waste out of his mouth because he was sinking even faster than he probably would’ve normally because he was trying so hard to make sure that Charlie was okay.

_Charlie._

Panda jumps up out of his bed, throwing his blanket around his shoulders for support. Oh geez, oh geez, if _he’s_ this sick just from _touching the waste,_ from _wading through it,_ than Charlie must be twice as miserable as he is, seeing as he _almost swallowed a bunch of it from nearly drowning._ Panda shakes his head to force the thought away. He has to go make sure Charlie’s okay. If his brothers get so concerned about him getting lost or collapsing on the way because he’s too sick to support himself, than they can just come with him.

It’s only fair to Charlie.

Panda grabs his inhaler, ties his blanket around his shoulders a bit like a cape, and runs as fast as a feverish person can out of his bedroom door, but he smacks into something that knocks him to the ground before he can make it to the front door.

“Panda! You’re okay!” exclaims Charlie, and suddenly Panda goes from lying dazed on the floor to being lifted into the air. “I knew you’d be here!” Charlie says as he squishes Panda close in a hug. “Okay, well, actually, I may have looked around the forest a bit for you first,” he blushes, “But I knew you’d be around! I knew my best bud couldn’t have skipped out on our plans” 

Plans?

“Good _morning,_ sleeping beauty” mocks Grizz’s voice from the living room. “Or should I say, _good afternoon?_ ”

“Wh…Huh?” Panda rubs at his eyes, still trying to process what’s going on.

Grizz snickers. “It’s two in the afternoon. You slept for _eighteen hours,_ little bro, Charlie’s been looking for you all day”

How ironic.

“Augh, I am _so_ sorry about this” Panda says, scrubbing his paws down his face. “I didn’t mean for you to worry”.

“Ah, not at all!” He grins. “I trusted you were okay, but I just wanted to make extra sure”, he says, but then tilts his head off to one side when he gets another look at him.  “I guess it’s a good thing I did though, huh?” he adds, now looking more concerned than cheerful. “You okay?”

Panda shakes his head. “Nevermind that” he sniffles, and adjusts the blanket on his shoulders. Charlie, are _you_ okay?”

Charlie beams. “I’m great, now that I don’t have to keep looking for you”

“That’s not what I meant” Panda frowns. “I’m sick, Charlie. I think it’s from exposure to whatever was in that lake. How are _you_ doing? Your exposure was worse than mine”

“Oh!” Charlie’s eyes light up in realization. “I really appreciate you wanting to check in, pumpkin, but I don’t think I _can_ get sick anymore. I’ve been around too long. I’m not sure there’s much left I _haven’t_ been exposed to!” he grins, but then he takes a knee to get on Panda’s eye level. “You, though?” he adjusts the blanket slipping off of Panda’s shoulder and ties a very loose knot into the end of it to prevent it from falling again. “You’re not looking too hot. You sure you’re okay? I could help look after you, if you’d like. I was planning on stickin’ around when I found you anyway”

Panda frowns. “That’s really nice of you to offer, Charlie, but I don’t think that’s fair to you”

“Huh? Why’s that? I’m always happy to help my best bud out!”

“Exactly!” Panda tosses his arms in the air. “You’re always doing _so much_ for me. It’s not fair. I want to be able to be here for _you,_ Charlie.”

“Nonsense! It’s plenty fair. I _want_ to look after my sweet Pan-Pan” He cups his hands together. “Besides! You saved my life back there. You don’t gotta make up for anything after that”

“But-”

“Say no more, Pan-Man. You need me, and it’s my duty as your best friend to be here for you. No reward necessary, pumpkin. You’re plenty enough for me”

Panda blushes, but before he can object any further Charlie scoops him up under his arm and opens the door to Panda’s bedroom. He unties the knot he’d made with the blanket around his shoulders, and once Panda’s back in his bed he gently drapes the blanket over him.

“There you are! Nice n’ comfy” he grin. “Anything I can get you?”

Panda rubs at the back of his head. “Tea _would_ be nice, but really, Charlie, you don’t have to-”

“Tea! On it!” Charlie exclaims, and before Panda can finish his sentence Charlie dashes out of his bedroom and towards the kitchen, leaving his door open just wide enough for him to be able to slip in and out of it without making much noise.

Panda drops back down onto his pillow. Whatever he did to deserve someone like Charlie, he’s not sure, but he does know for sure that he’s making up for it as soon he feels well enough to stand on his own two feet. He’s about to turn over on his side to try and think of _something_ when Charlie slowly backs into the room.

“I’m back!” he exclaims. He’s holding a mug in one hand, and a bowl of steaming soup in his other. “I know you just asked for tea, but I saw your brother was preparing some food and I wanted to save you the trouble. Bit more veggies than broth, just the way you like it” he says. He places the bowl on Panda’s nightstand, and offers him the mug.  “Couldn’t remember if you said your favorite was rosewater or lavender, but all I could find was lavender, so I just assumed that’s what it was”. He takes a seat back down at Panda’s bedside as Panda takes the cup. “And Grizz said your fancy mug from Japan wasn’t clean, so I grabbed the second best thing. That okay?”

Carefully, as not to burn himself, Panda takes the cup from Charlie and inspects it. It’s the mug he made a few years ago at a local art store with a painstakingly and carefully painted red heart with a black outline on both sides of the mug. Panda had been _so_ proud of how it came out that he used it for everything he drank when it was new and then progressively less and less when Anime Boulevard had a huge store-wide sale on their exclusive collection of mugs. He takes a cautious sip of it and finds himself shocked that Charlie managed to nail his personal preference of steep time-to-sugar spot on.

“You…remembered all of this stuff about me?” Panda asks, fiddling with the handle of his mug.

Charlie grins. “Of course I did! I remember everything you’ve told me. Your favorite foods, your favorite drink, favorite anime, the works! Tried borrowing your laptop a while back to watch the latter a while back, but I guess I couldn’t focus on reading the subtitles and watching at the same time”

Panda snickers. “Heh, yeah, it’s a learned skill” he takes a sip of his tea. “If I weren’t feeling too sick to watch anything I’d say I could show you something to start with that’s a little easier to follow”

“Really?” Charlie beams. “You’d help me out with that?”

“Yeah, man!” Panda beams back, and reaches for his bowl of soup. “You’re like, the first person to actively seek something out just for my sake.”

“You kidding?” Charlie’s grin brightens. “If it makes you happy, I want to know more about it so I can make you happy, too”

Panda almost spills the soup from this spoon, he’s smiling that hard. Gently, he places the bowl back down at his nightstand, and weakly pushes himself up and throws his arms around Charlie.

“Oh, you~” Charlie singsongs, and he’s quick to hug him back.

And maybe it’s because Panda’s _really_ cold, and achy, and his head is still spinning a bit from sitting up so quickly, and his fever is _really_ doing a number on his ability to filter out his thoughts before he speaks, but-

“You’re really comfy”

“What?” Charlie asks, and when Panda finds the physical strength to pull away from the hug Charlie’s blushing.

“You’re…really comfy” Panda repeats, slower this time, even though he has a feeling that Charlie probably heard him the first time. He crawls just a bit closer to Charlie before throws his arms around him again. “You’re so…” he pauses, looking for the right word. “Soft” he settles on, and barely represses a giggle.

“O-oh, well, thank you, Pan-Pan, I don’t know what to-” he stutters, but before Charlie can finish his sentence Panda snuggles even closer.

“You don’t mind, do you?”

“Mind what?”

Panda adjusts himself again, and he’s practically clinging to Charlie’s side.

He yawns. “If I fall asleep on you. I’m very tired”

“Oh!” Charlie exclaims, and adjusts his own position on Panda’s bed to allow Panda for more comfort. “Of course”

“Yay~” Panda murmurs, and the single word drags out until he’s fast asleep in Charlie’s arms.

It’s the best sleep he’s gotten in a _long_ time.

~~

When he wakes up, he’s surprised to find that not only did Charlie manage to move him into a _much_ comfier position closer to the backboard of his bed, but that he managed to fall asleep too.

Or, so he thinks, because as soon as Panda starts to unwind his arms from around Charlie he sits up and rubs at his eyes. “Hey, pumpkin”, he says, and his voice is raspy from sleep. Their faces are mere inches away from each other.

Panda blames his fever for the burn in his cheeks. “Hey”, he says, and his voice is equally raspy.

Charlie sits up. “You feeling any better? I hope I didn’t wake you”

“Huh? No, you didn’t wake me at all” Panda replies, and _really_ wishes he could blame his fever on his cheeks burning even hotter at having to leave out the fact that it’s best nap he’s had in recent history. He sits up, and scooches backwards to make room for Charlie, and he sits up as well. Panda’s surprised to find how significantly easier moving around is, especially considering the fact that he hasn’t taken any fever reduction medicine at all today.

“And I’m feeling…much better, thank you”

Charlie beams. “That’s great to hear! You still want the tea or the soup? I had your brothers reheat both of them for you while you were asleep”.

He really does think of everything.

“Just the tea’s fine” Panda says, and Charlie hands him the mug when he reaches out for it. Panda eyes the large heart he painted onto the side of the mug, spares a quick glance at Charlie, and takes a slow sip from his cup to hide his burning face from his view. He stares into his mug for a moment at his barely-visible reflection in his tea.

“Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

“Well,” he starts, swirling the tea in his cup in a circle. “Well, I just wanted to say that I…I really appreciate all you’re doing for me, and…I know I probably don’t say this as much as I should, but…” he stops swirling his cup, and smiles shyly at Charlie. “But thank you”

“Nah, I told you earlier! No thanks necessary. I’m doing this because I want to”

Panda shakes his head. “Not just today, Charlie. I mean…for everything. You’ve been there for me through…everything I can think of, and I know I’ve already said this, but I really mean it, Charlie, I want to be here for you” he shakes his head, but continues before Charlie can interrupt.  “I don’t know anybody else who would remember so much about me. I can’t even get my own _brothers_ to get into anime for me, Charlie.”  He takes a sip from his tea. “And, well, I don’t know what your equivalent is, but whatever it is, I want to do the same for you. I want to know about your niche interests, and your favorite things, and…” he bats his eyes away. “I want to make you happy, because, well…” he glances down at the heart on his mug. “You make me happy too”.

Charlie’s blushing hard the next time Panda can bring himself to look him in the eyes. “Th-thank you, Pan-Pan, I-”

Panda shakes his head, and reaches to place a paw on top of the hand Charlie has resting on Panda’s bed. “No thanks necessary”, he says, taking Charlie’s own words right from his mouth. “It’s my duty as your best friend”.

There’s a moment of silence between them, but before either of them can get another word in Panda’s suddenly overcome with another coughing fit.

“Except…maybe I better save it for when I’m feeling better”

 


End file.
